You value your time, energy, and effort. Do you know what your customers value in your business/industry?

Your proposal should illustrate how you plan to bring value to the customer.

Knowing what your customers values is more than just asking questions. It also involves listening and observing. The client’s goals and objectives are known. That was the first question that they answered. Getting to understand the VALUE gets to the HOW. For example, how does the customer want to be perceived after the project completion?

Aligned goals and values may be what your client have. If the goals and values seem different then the you may want to make sure that you understand the requirements and needs of the RFP. Look at the previous projects of the customers and their partners.

The proposal should include the steps that your business or organization will perform to create VALUE for your customer.

Cre Crenshaw is a Business Solutions Specialist at Creative Technology Solutions. CTS offers full-service proposal development to help your business or organization grow. Contact her at cre@cre8ivetechsolns.com for a FREE quote.

Now, it is time to focus our attention on Teachers who provide some of the basis of education for our children to grow and develop. It is these men and women tasked to offer a glimpse of the world to the younger generation. Technically, these are some of their mentors, friends, and confidantes. At Creative Technology Solutions, we want to let the teachers know about funding opportunities to help their students thrive in today’s society.

Nominations are available for the National Kind Teacher Award from the Humane Society of the US Foundation until February 2015. Go to http://www.humanesociety.org/parents_educators/award/national_kind_teacher_award.html for more information.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) offering Equity in Mathematics grants (up to $8,000) for middle school teachers who must be a member of NCTM by October 14, 2014 or teach at a member school. The purpose of the grant is to implement plans to improve the results of underachieving student populations. Applications due November 7, 2014. For complete details, please visit http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=1322.

Creative Technology Solutions provides funding opportunities, proposal development and management for non-profits as well as A/E/C firms. If you have any questions concerning grant writing, proposal development, or funding opportunities, please be sure to contact me at cre@cre8ivetechsolns.com.

Okay, you know that you need help in the proposal development process. However, you don’t want the proposal assistance that you requested to take all of your time and you could have written it yourself. There are ways around this so you get to monitor and review the work and not do 30% or more of it.

First of all, know that all executives have to be involved in the RFP process in some capacity, especially in the top ten federal contractors like General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman. Know what information to deliver quickly. So, it won’t have to be inserted and drafted later and then reviewed and edited again by executives. Some basic information should be gathered on the first day of the assignment (even before the release date of the RFP).

1) Selecting your past performance. Make sure that your consultant has this information and/or that it is easily accessible. It should be straight-forward and to why the the project was selected and how this project highlights that skills/knowledge that the client is seeking.

2)Ensure that your consultant knows the needs of the client. This is sometimes highlighted in the RFP and/or grant. Any pre-RFP capture management should be available for this client.

3)Be organized. The more people involved the more important this becomes. This will help everyone assemble the RFP quickly.

4) Communicate Consistently. Your proposal development consultant may still have a few questions. Be able to communicate thoroughly throughout the proposal writing process is great. If you desire weekly, daily, specific updates,or reviews, it will help to establish this early in the process. If you could be available for short interviews (less than 20 min), instead of writing for hours and editing that could save you approximately 2 to 3 hours of writing. Just make sure to be available for a 30 minute critique with your proposal development consultant.

There are many sources of information available to guide you in proposal writing. Just doing a quick search of Proposal Writing on the web yield several results concerning proposal format, proposal templates, proposal software, and proposal sample.

Then, in your search you discover there are several types of proposals including sales, grants, and business. It can be a daunting task to figure out how to write a proposal (the type that you need and be able to utilize this before the RFP/grant is due). If you are finding that your organization needs proposal development assistance, the proper information has to be provided to the Proposal Writer/Manager to help the process along.

How will you know that you could have secured more funds and gotten more done with some outside assistance?

What is the proposal threshold that your proposal can handle with and without the additional help?

How many more funding opportunities can be pursued if a professional can to help you and my company?

Has the proper relationship been establish RFP/grant release date?

Have you established partnership or teams to assist you before the grant/RFP release date?

How much time is devoted to researching the client to ensure that proper communication is handled?

Your company know about itself does it know about the client. Be sure to request any helpful information as soon as possible.

Other websites can help you with the basics of proposal writing. Your company needs to know what proposal to pursue and which to pass or recommend to others. Helping organization expand grow their staff, and better the community through their work. The basics of proposal writing is not as in depth of what is needed for business development. There are strategies relationship building, and client management.

Reading the basics of proposal writing may lead one think that winning proposal have no errors—-especially grammatical ones. That has never been true. Focus on what counts in the proposal. Proposal Development is still an art and not exact as science. Having processing in plan can help alleviate the guesswork.

At CTS, we know that your company may want or need proposal development assistance. We provide winning top quality proposals that are compliant and compelling. We simplify the proposal development process to let you work at what your company does best.

When working with any consultant, it is best to have the details available or at least easily accessible. These are stated in the RFP or grant.The consultant may not have all the numbers initially to write the proposal so be prepared for feedback. Getting the details as soon as possible can help convey the clearest vision of your proposed project.

This anticipation is easier said than performed. Having someone who is available to provide these facts will help the proposal development process go more smoothly. If your company has a statement of work perfomed that is qualified by the metrics of the RFP or grant, it is good to have the description of the project and the customer’s satisfaction/evaluation of the project before the proposal is even written. In the proposal, focus on fulfilling the customer’s needs and measuring the performance of your work. Make sure to schedule time to review the proposal with the writer before submission. Most of the details for the grant or RFP should be gathered pre-RFP.